Caterham

With the possible exception of Lotus, nowhere is the spirit of legendary car designer Colin Chapman more alive than at Caterham. The legacy of the Chapman’s Lotus Seven, initially produced in 1957, is alive and well in the cars of Caterham. While every year Caterham innovates on the original Lotus designs, the cars produced today — more than 50 years later — have changed little overall. Caterham was a major dealer for the Lotus 7 in the 1960s and, in 1973, founder Graham Nearn purchased the rights to the Seven. Through the company’s participation in Formula One racing, the Caterham Group has translated lessons from the highest level of racing into their production car The Caterham variants may all be street legal, but their home is of course on the track. In fact, Caterhams are often required to race in their own league having been banned from racing for being too fast. Undoubtedly, that’s something Colin Chapman would have been proud of.

2013 Caterham Superlight R500 - Photo by Alekru99

When the cars you built for racing become banned from racing and breed franchise slogans such as “Caterham Seven, the Car That's Too Fast to Race” you know you’re doing something right. The Caterham Superlight is the latest masterwork created by one of the patriarchs of racing design, Colin Chapman. The basic design of the Superlight R500 are the bones of the Lotus 7 which has existed in a mostly unaltered form for more than 50 years. Sure, there have been evolutions in materials, tweaks to dimensions, and the old live-axle rear suspension has long been replaced by a De Dion rear axle. At its heart, however, this is the same car that proved itself unfairly advantageous to race other cars. Caterham purchased the rights to the Lotus 7 in 1973 and has since been “simplifying and adding lightness” as Chapman prophesized so long ago. The Superlight R500 represents a weapons-grade thrill car that can deliver breathtaking performance anywhere it’s required. There are few cars in the world that can match its 0-60 times (at sub-3 seconds) and even fewer that can also equal its lap times that are otherwise only achievable in a purpose-built race car.

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